To evaluate impacts of
brief intervention on patients’ alcohol risk drinking, quality of life
and health state after treatment at the Sobering Unit in the emergency
department at three months, six months, and one year follow-up.

This
was a quasi-experimental study without control group (one-year
follow-up). Alcohol use of patients in emergency department (Sobering
Unit) in specialized care in Finland (AUDIT–test), quality of life
(EQ-5D-3L) and health state (EQ VAS) at baseline, three months, six
months and one year following the brief intervention were analyzed with
Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test.

The
patients’ alcohol risk use decreased statistically significantly after
the treatment period at the Sobering Unit. The patients’ health-related
quality of life did not change statistically significantly during three
months following the treatment period, whereas a statistically
significant increase took place after six months. Self-perceived health
status improved statistically significantly between the treatment period
and three- and six-month follow up time points.

The
study gave some suggestive evidence that a brief intervention could be
effective for harmful drinkers or alcohol-dependent patients when used
in an emergency department. The Sobering Unit in the emergency
department is one solution to encourage patients to pay attention to
their alcohol risk drinking.